By Reagan Reese
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday designating fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction amid the administration’s escalating conflict with Venezuela and “narcoterrorists.”
The administration has continued its strikes on alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean as pressure increases on Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro. The president announced his next move against drug trafficking and signed an executive order to name fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. (RELATED: Rand Paul Says Trump Boat Strikes ‘Prelude To War’ With Venezuela)
In 2003, under former President George W. Bush’s administration, the United States invaded Iraq because Saddam Hussein was believed to have weapons of mass destruction. No weapons of mass destruction were found during the war.
“But there’s no doubt that America’s adversaries are trafficking fentanyl into the United States, in part because they want to kill Americans. If this [were] a war that would be one of the worst wars, I believe they killed over the last five or six years, per year, 200 to 300,000 people. You hear about 100,000 which is a lot of people, but the number’s much higher. That’s been proven, and they’ve destroyed a lot of families, because when they lose a child, or even if their child is heavily addicted, you lose that family, the family will never be the same,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“That’s why today, I’m taking one more step to protect Americans from the scourge of deadly fentanyl flooding into our country with this historic executive order I will sign today. We’re formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, which is what it is. No bomb does what this is doing. Two-hundred to 300,000 people die every year. That we know of. So we’re formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction,” he added.
Following the announcement, some media figures drew connections to the now ill-received Iraq war.
“I already said fentanyl is going to be this generations ‘WMD’ to justify war in Venezuela when it’s not even there,” Sara Higdon, a reporter for the Post Millennial, posted on X. “But now tell me how this works? Fentanyl is a schedule 2 drug, in every hospital in America, and we make millions of grams each year… also calling it a WMD, doesn’t make sense, when every drug OD is self inflicted…”
Foreign policy analysts previously speculated to the Daily Caller that the president is pursuing conflict overseas to potentially pave the way for regime change in Venezuela. Trump has previously denied that regime change is an objective.
On Nov. 17, the president spoke about the growing conflict overseas. He told reporters that he wouldn’t rule “anything” out when it comes to dealing with Venezuela and potentially sending in ground troops.
“The two cartels that are predominantly responsible for the distribution of fentanyl in the United States engage in armed conflict over territory and to protect their operations, resulting in large-scale violence and death that go beyond the immediate threat of fentanyl itself,” Trump’s executive order reads. “Further, the potential for fentanyl to be weaponized for concentrated, large-scale terror attacks by organized adversaries is a serious threat to the United States.”
As the focus on the conflict overseas has increased, Trump has received some push back from supporters who want him to focus more on domestic issues, rather than foreign ones.
“So … wait a minute. So some people would say don’t focus on anything outside of our border. I like that, too. But I’ve made trillions and trillions of dollars and solved problems and solved wars,” Trump said in response to concerns during an interview with Politico.
“Do you know most of the wars that I solved were solved sitting behind the Oval Office desk on a telephone? I think that those are worthy phone calls. Even if they didn’t impact us to save millions of lives from another country and if I can do that easily because I have that ability are pretty good,” he added.
